SPORTS DIGEST

The NCAA is investigating whether new Oklahoma coach John Blake improperly used his ties to the Dallas Cowboys to recruit players for the Sooners, the Austin American-Statesman reported today.

Bob Oliver, director of NCAA Legislative Services, said yesterday that his office has received information that Cowboys coach Barry Switzer was involved with recruiting athletes last weekend at the campus in Norman, Okla., and some Cowboys players allegedly have been calling prospects at their homes on behalf of Blake, the former Dallas defensive line coach.

"We're deciding whether there are violations there, and if there are, we're turning them over to the enforcement staff," Oliver told the newspaper.

Oliver said if the NCAA determines a violation occurred, "those student-athletes involved would never be eligible at that school unless their eligibility is restored. It's an all-or-nothing law."

-- The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Catellus Development Corp. have joined in a study of the feasibility of acquiring an NFL expansion franchise and building a new football stadium on their property to house it.

-- Packers quarterback Brett Favre was named the NFL's Player of the Year.

-- The New York Jets and Washington Redskins have discussed a trade involving the top overall pick in this year's draft, a source told the Associated Press. The Jets were interested in swapping the No. 1 choice to Washington for the sixth pick in the first round and "other considerations," said the source. Those considerations would include quarterback Gus Frerotte.

-- Buffalo Bills wide receiver Russell Copeland appeared in Hamburg (N.Y.) Town Court on charges that he broke his girlfriend's nose during a fight.

-- Lamar Smith of the Seattle Seahawks smelled of alcohol and signed a statement saying teammate Chris Warren was driving when Smith's vehicle crashed into a utility pole, a police officer testified. Smith is charged with vehicular assault in the Dec. 1, 1994, crash in Kirkland, which left another Seahawk, Mike Frier, paralyzed.

-- New Mexico defensive tackle Steve Malonson has suffered a stroke. The 6-foot-1, 265- pound junior from Houston was listed in serious condition at University Hospital in Albuquerque, N.M.

-- The CFL's Baltimore Stallions will be moving to Montreal for next season, according to broadcast reports. On Tuesday, owner Jim Speros sent a letter asking the NFL to allow the CFL franchise to enter the NFL.

-- ELSEWHERE

INJURY SHELVES MARATHON STAR

Olga Appell, the leading qualifier for the U.S. Women's Olympic Marathon Trials, has withdrawn from the February 10 race because of a training injury.

-- Middle-distance running great Sandor Iharos of Hungary died Wednesday in Budapest. He was 65. Iharos set 11 world records. From May 1955 to July 1956, the slightly built Hungarian rewrote the record book for the middle distances in seven events. But he never won an Olympic medal and missed the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary earlier that year.

-- Russia's Artur Dmitriev, a former world and Olympic champion, became a European pairs champion again with a new partner, Oksana Kazakova, at the championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. Dmitriev won the 1992 Olympic and 1991 and 1992 world titles with Natasha Mishkutienok. But she wanted to stop skating, marry and raise a family.